Recipe Time!

Hi bloggies! I am SO not a food blogger, but I do love to eat.  One of my resolutions for 2012 is to cook meals at home more and expand my repoitre beyond fajitas, tacos, and spaghetti. Last year I created this awesome one pot pasta dish, inspired by a few other recipes I have seen in magazines and on AllRecipes.com. 

Fellow iPad users, I MUST take a moment to highly recommend the All Recipes app! It is FABULOUS. So visually appealing, easy to use, and searchable by photo inspiration or based on ingredients you have on hand. V. cool. But download it later, you need to stay here to check out my new fave go-to meal.

What you will need:

•  Tri color rotini pasta (I prefer Barilla! I love their whole grain products.)
• Chicken (I need quick meals, so I buy the Archer Farms frozen diced chicken breast)
• Basalmic vinegar
• Olive oil
• 2 tbs butter
• Cracked red pepper flakes
• Garlic (I buy mine prechopped in the jar)
• Basil (fresh or dried)
• Oregano (fresh or dried)
• Heirloom tomatoes (quartered)
• Red bell pepper (diced)
• Diced carrots
• Spinach (shredded)
• Squash & Zuchinni (cut into fourths)
• Sliced black olives, sliced green olives
• Shredded parmesan for topping
 
Whew! That's a lot of stuff! I promise this is so easy to make.
Step 1: Boil your pasta until al dente. (about 7 minutes) Then strain and set aside.

Step 2: While you wait for the water to boil and the pasta to cook until al dente, slice your veggies and place them in a bowl.

Step 3: After the pasta is finished, drain the water and leave the pasta in a colander. Set it aside.

Step 4: Using the same pot (why yes, that's my adorable red Paula Deen cookware!), drizzle the bottom with olive oil and add 1 tbs of butter (if you must!). One day I will cut out the butter. Not today.

Step 5: Dump in your bowl of veggies and sautee those babies! I like my zucchini to get a tad translucent in the middle but still firm (not totally limp). At this point I begin to shake in my cracked red pepper, cracked black pepper, basalmic vinegar, one nice spoon of garlic (and maybe some more, depending on my mood), oregano, and more olive oil. Taste as you go!  I like my veggies more spicy than my hubs, so do what you must to get it how you like & yet still please your family.

Step 6: When the veggies look done (it's okay if they're not all the way, you will add them back in later), put them in a large bowl with the noodles. Set the large bowl aside.

Step 7: Cook your diced chicken in olive oil and basalmic vinegar. Add more butter.... If you must. I won't judge. Add more garlic.  (I don't recall Edward being garlic-aversive, so no worries if you Twi-hards are still waiting for glitter boy to come sweep you off your feet!)

Step 8: Leave the chicken in your pot, dump back in your noodles and veggies, stir it up and make sure everything gets nice and heated through again. Add your olives if you had forgotten! Do NOT forget my fave ingredient. (I add them to practically anything I can!)  Sorry there is no pic of this step. My pot got nice and full and I added more basalmic. I was also entertaining Cade with some markers and a coloring book and assuring him that dinner would be worth the wait! While the meal heats up, butter some whole grain french bread (sprinkled with oregano and garlic of COURSE) and bake until toasty.

Step 9: Serve it up!! I added strawberries and blueberries as sides for little man's meal. Enjoy!
(Bring the basalmic to the table in case your  meal is too bland, that always makes it better... Next time don't be skurred to add your spices!)